BHUVAN - ISRO's LATEST LAUNCH

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched a mapping application website named “BHUVAN” means “Earth” in Sanskrit . The main aim of this design is to give better 3D satellite images of India and provides features of the nation. It looks similar to Google Earth but its design promised to give more extended features than Google especially in its resolution. Bhuvan. It enables us to view each nook and corner of India except the places of military and nuclear importance.

This 3D mapping tool uses images taken by ISRO’s seven remote sensing satellites, including Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 which was taken a year ago. This satellite can even capture the images of objects as small as a car on a road. We can see the images in 3D viewing environment with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWifs). Bhuvan maps up to 10 meters as compared to 200 meters of Google and 50 meters of Wikipedia.

This prestigious achievement has been carried entirely by National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), which is a part of ISRO located in Hyderabad. The entire nation salutes the work made by ISRO in bringing the technology in the hands of the people.

ASHES AWAY FROM AUSSIES

Its a great time for England as they won the ASHES which is considered to be the most precious one even one step ahead higher than the world cup. After a long struggle England managed to lead the series 2-1. The final match decides the fate of the trophy which was over ruled completely by england over aussies. Flintoff leads England off with a stump in hand, leads them up the race to healthy applause. There's Kevin Pietersen in the dressing rooms, the whole England squad looks to be there, they've all played a part. The Man of the Match is Stuart Broad, he was the one who changed the game dramatically in one spell during the first innings. While England's Man of the series is Andrew Strauss for his brilliant batting and splendid captaincy-nominated by Tim Nielsen. For Australia, Michael Clarke for his dominating batting is the Man of the series nominated by Andy Flower. The Compton-Miller Medal goes to the player who has had the biggest impact on the series, goes to Andrew Strauss.

EDUCATION SITES

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week from my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you.

Tech Tool (facebook learning) – if Facebook isn’t blocked at your school, here are some applications that teachers would enjoy using with their students.

Wordle in the classroom – Mims shares a presentation about 38 interesting ways to use wordle in the classroom.

Literature Learning Ladders – “…make the connection between theory and practice by exploring some online resources related to literacy, themes, literature circles, technology, and learning.”

David Rumsey Map Collection – “has over 20,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century cartographic materials. Historic maps. Collection categories include atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, city, country, wall, children and manuscript maps.”

NANO – TATA’S MAGICAL WORD

                        

Recession and Price hike at one hand and Nano in the other hand. Even in the recession period people have money their hands despite the Malls across India had shown depreciation in net profit for Q1 in fiscal 2009-2010. Nano has become a magic word for Tata Groups. After the successfully run of Nano in the Indian roads, Tata Groups has planned number of Nano projects for the future. Before Nano hits the road, the low cost car has dropped some innovative designs in the release model. One of the cost effective door idea was dropped. The plastic door in the Nano was tested successful; the idea was dropped because people would think unsafe. Early the Tata Groups Nano was launched in the Mumbai. The key was hand over to a Customs Inspector by Tata Groups Chairman Mr.Ratan Tata.

COVENTRY EQUALS ANWAR's RECORD

Finally after 12 years, a new man Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe who equals Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar record (194 out against India) and scored marvelous 194* runs against Bangladesh during the fourth ODI of the series in Bulawayo. He started of the innings at no.3 and reached his century ony in the 38th over of the match with 110 balls. After reaching 42nd over of the match, Coventry made all the balls to cross the fence where he reached 180 runs in 47th over of the match as the Zimbabwe’s crowd was excited and awaiting to see their country men scoring double hundred in ODI cricket. But Unfortunately, Coventry couldn’t score his double hundred as he remained unbeaten on 194 runs of 156 balls with 16 fours and 7 sixes which puts their team total as 312 runs for 8 wickets. Chasing a huge total of 313, Opener Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh provided a good start with 154 runs (138 balls) guided their team to victory Bangladesh lead the five match series 3-1 against Zimbabwe. Man Of Match award - Charles Coventry and Tamim Iqbal (shared) .

SNAKE BOAT RACE - KERALA

Hi friends..Recently i got a chance to visit kerela and i felt very happy and the luckiest person too as i had a chance to look at the snake boat race-a traditional and interesting sport even we can say as festival there. I collected some information that the snake boat races in Kerala are the outstanding events that brings alive the calm backwaters. It is held in connection with Onam, the harvest festival in August-September. It is the largest team sport in the world and lead by colourful water parades. Thousands of people gather at lakes to cheer the huge black crafts as they slice through the waters to a spectacular finish. One of the oldest and most popular boat races in Kerala is Champakulam Moolam Boat Race which is connected to Sree Krishna Temple at Ambalappuzha. This race is conducted on Champakulam Lake on the moolam day of Midhunam, the Malayalam month. Some of the boat races held during the months of August–September are Rajiv Gandhi Boat Race, ATDC Boat Race, Neerettupuram Boat Race, Kumarakom Arpookara Vanitha Jalamela, Karuvatta Boat Race, Thazhathangadi Boat Race, Kottayam Mahatma Boat Race and Kumaranasan Smaraka Jalotsavam. Indira Gandhi Boat Race is held on the Ernakulam Lake during the Cochin Carnival in December last week. I hope you like it and will bring you many interesting facts later...

HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT IN U.K.

Unemployment is the hot topic prevails on most og the people of all ages. I read in article that it is at all time high in U.K as there was an increase of 281,000 in the number of unemployed people in three months to May. According to the Office of National Statistics, there are 2.38 million unemployed people in U.K. This is the highest unemployment in U.K. in more than 10 years with unemployment rate hitting 7.6%. The degree of the problem becomes more visible when we see an increase of 23,800, in the month of June, in the number of people who are taking unemployment benefits.

Highest unemployment growth has been in the group of young people. With 726,000 unemployed young people, this is the highest unemployment since last 16 years for young people. Another concern is that the number of young people out of work for over a year has gone up to 528,000, highest in last 11 years. I thinh this problem will get solved soon as lot of steps have been taken by US president that helps people staying all over the world. Lets wait and watch...

GOOGLE's EFFORTS TO STOP PORNOGRAPHY

Google would step up efforts to stop pornography reaching users in China after a mainland watchdog found the search engine turned up a large number of links to obscene and vulgar sites. It said that it had renewed efforts to keep the internet in China clean after noticing criticism by the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center. Google Inc. said that it would step up efforts to stop pornography reaching users in China. "We have been continually working to deal with pornographic content, and material that is harmful to children, on the Web in China," company said.

The watchdog said that despite official warnings, Google was still failing to "filter pornographic contents from its search engine results according to China's relevant laws and regulations." It said tests found that the search engine provided links to a large number of lewd and vulgar pictures, videos and articles, though it gave no specific examples.

China, which has the world's largest population of Internet users at more than 298 million, also has one of the world's tightest controls over the Internet. The government bans online pornography and this year launched a nationwide crackdown that led to the closing of more than 1,900 Web sites.Google, headquartered in Mountain View, California, has struggled to expand in China, where it says it has about 30 per cent of the search market. China's homegrown Baidu search engine remains the most popular, with about 60 per cent of the market.

SOLAR ECLIPSE WITNESSED FROM VARANASI

Solar eclipse starts at 5.31am in Varanasi which is being witnessed despite cloud cover. At 6am a lot of action Assi Ghat, Varanasi. The eclipse is at 60% at the moment. Thousands of bathers streaming in, chanting Hare Ram, Hare Ram. Meanwhile, Varanasi seems to be one of the only sites in the totality zone where the cloud cover is only partial, giving us breathtaking views of the sun through the naked eye as it passes through thin clouds. Sharply at 6.20am it's 4 minutes to totality. The sunshine has turned a pale yellow, it's suddenly gone dark and the noise from the bathers is reaching a crescendo and the air has suddenly turned cool.

At 6.26am, it was pure magic. Seconds before totality, a diamond ring formed in the sky sparkling with stunning beauty. Seconds later, all went dark. The sun was totally eclipsed. It's the end of the eclipse at 7.2am. From the position at the rooftop of a hotel at Assi ghat, i can see hundreds of bathers still swarming in for a dip in the Ganga. The most expected areas Taregana, Patna, Sasaram  all missed the totality to clouds, except for Sasaram where it was visible for 10 seconds. I guess, I am incredibly lucky to have seen the sight of century. I've attached some of its images...enjoy

AJITH's 50th film produced by Aascar Ravichandran

Followed by grand success of ‘Dasavatharam’ and ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, Aascar Ravichandran witnessed average success with ‘Aanandha Thandavam’. Now, he has signed deal with Vijay’s 51st film that is to be directed by Jeyam Raja. Meanwhile, here’s great news for all the fans of Ultimate Star ‘Ajith Kumar’.

It has been confirmed that Aascar Ravichandran would be producing the 50th film of Ajith too that is yet to be titled. Well, when it comes to the director, Ajith isn’t straining himself like Vijay who has fixed his filmmaker for next couple of films much before ‘Vettaikaaran’. Ajith has all the focus set on ‘ASAL’ directed by Saran and would then choose the filmmakers. Sources closer to him have been reporting that it would be SJ Suryah, A.R. Murugadoss or Venkat Prabhu wielding